2,577 entries categorized "Hispanic Culture"

Last week's presidential election has people asking: Do Latinos really vote as a bloc? Or is that just a myth intended to make America's largest minority, and one of the country's fastest-growing groups of voters, seem more important than it really is?

The answer is complicated.

It is true that — unlike African-Americans, about 90 percent of whom tend to vote for the Democratic candidate on the ballot — Latinos usually show less unity and cohesion. In fact, in 2012 they were labeled "swing" voters by Time magazine — as unpredictable a demographic as suburban moms.

While more than 60 percent of Latino voters identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, many of them are willing to put aside party labels and support moderate Republicans. See: former President George W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Also, because Latinos divide into smaller categories based on country of origin, there really is no "Latino vote" per se. It's more accurate to say there is a Mexican-American vote, a Cuban-American vote, a Colombian-American vote, a Puerto Rican vote, etc. The biggest slice of the pie belongs to those who can trace their ancestry to Mexico. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, those folks account for about 64 percent of the U.S. Latino population.

This sort of thing matters. Many voters of Mexican descent have different views than, say, Cuban-Americans, on an issue like immigration or whether to open relations with Havana.

And there is even more splintering between U.S-born Mexican-Americans and foreign-born Mexicans who are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Also, Latino voters will sometimes forsake party loyalty, go rogue and support someone based on personality, celebrity or the allure of their ideas.

Which brings us to what happened this year. According to CNN exit polls, 29 percent of Latinos voted for someone who has, for the past year and a half, been their persecutor — Donald Trump. The New York Times puts the figure at 27 percent.

The billionaire enjoyed even greater support from Cuban-Americans who, according to CNN, gave him as much as 54 percent of their votes in Florida.

Of course, not everyone agrees with those percentages. The polling firm Latino Decisions was an outlier. It put Trump's Latino support at a mere 18 percent.

This much is clear: For the most part, Latinos are independent voters who follow their conscience as opposed to simply following the herd.

Yet that doesn't stop the media, the parties and political strategists from lumping Latinos together as often as they can. Sometimes, the idea is to discern voting patterns or evaluate what kinds of marketing efforts bring out the vote. They do the same thing with other voters.

For instance, we're told Trump earned the support of 72 percent of working-class white men who didn't attend college, and 62 percent of their female counterparts. That doesn't mean that those groups voted as a bloc. But it does mean that Trump was the kind of candidate, with the kind of message, that appealed to this demographic subset.

Think of it in terms of buying practices and consumer goods. The nation's cereal companies employ strategies and develop messaging to convince parents to choose their brand of cereal. But this doesn't mean that all moms and dads think alike or that they buy cereal as a "bloc." What it means is that they can be addressed, and even manipulated, as a group to produce a preferred outcome.

Likewise, with Latino voters, as divided as we can be because of our diverse backgrounds or differences of opinion, we have also demonstrated over the years a tendency to come together against a common enemy.

I remember what happened in 1994. In California, 78 percent of Latinos put aside their differences and came together to oppose Proposition 187, a mean-spirited and ultimately unconstitutional GOP-sponsored ballot initiative that denied education, social services and non-emergency medical care to undocumented immigrants and their U.S.-born children.

Latinos punished the Republican Party for the next two decades, and now California is dark blue.

The lesson: When the air is peaceful, Latinos will often divide up and vote our own narrow interests. But when we're attacked or provoked, we will just as often come together and show strength in numbers.

Do Latinos vote as a bloc? Well, to a large degree, that's up to you — and how you treat us.

During my time in Arizona, I have met people who identify as Hispanic, but can't engage in a conversation in Spanish — and I understand. Many of my Hispanic friends were born and raised as bicultural and bilingual. Unfortunately, trying to balance their lives among both cultures sometimes results in Spanish-language inefficiency.

In my case, it's not a big issue, because I can adapt to either language easily. The problem comes when you look at these situations in a bigger context. I think there has to be a more definitive guideline for identifying as "Hispanic" or "Spanish-Speaker" in the U.S.

It's really concerning to see that with time, less young people speak Spanish. It's sad that they fail to see the advantage that being bilingual can provide. It's really ironic how many of them have been identifying as Hispanic their entire life, when the definition of Hispanic actually revolves entirely around language.

It scares me to see Spanish fade away with time.

I'm Hispanic, but I was born and raised in a homogenous community where we only spoke Spanish. In Arizona I struggle to determine whether I should speak Spanish with a coworker, classmate or anybody who identifies as Latino or Hispanic.

For me, these conversations usually go in two different directions. If they do speak Spanish, I'm confused whether I should continue the conversation in Spanish (or Spanglish in some cases). In other occasions, I decide to continue the conversation mostly in English because the person is clearly not comfortable speaking the language, which is okay, too.

I don't want to underestimate anybody or offend them with my decision. Sometimes they are embarrassed to speak Spanish because they don't practice it often, and they know I do. In other cases they just prefer to speak English, and can occasionally be ridiculed for that decision. Some Hispanics tell non-Spanish-speaking latinos that they're "not Latino enough."

As immigrant families keep growing in the U.S., I think families should continue to practice Spanish in the household. It's also crucial to include Spanish-language education where the Latino and Hispanic community is a big part of the student population.

In California, Proposition 58 was passed last Tuesday which repeals English-only education for students learning English as a second language. By integrating Spanish as part of their learning process, they also have the ability to explore and expand their Spanish skills.

Spanish education in the U.S. also needs to grow more, specially postsecondary education. I think there should be more emphasis on learning proper Spanish. That is: how to write it correctly and how to speak it formally. This will benefit the person not only socially but also in their profession. In the U.S., it might be acceptable to know only elementary Spanish, but this can limit your possibilities when networking abroad.

ASU offers a Spanish-Heritage Program to connect Hispanics and Latinos to their heritage through language. A former professor of this program, Roberto Ortiz Manzanilla, said it's important for these students to explore Language because, "if a person dose not develop a dialogue between his/her culture this sometimes preserves stereotypes," he said. Manzanilla feels that Latinos in the U.S. must develop more awareness in order to appreciate their culture.

As the Hispanic community continues I think we owe it to our ancestors and our identity as Hispanics in the U.S. to grow I think they should grow as educated and literate within the element that identifies us — language.

As said before, I think heritage isn't limited to language but we can decide how we want to shape our identity. We must decide whether we are going to allow our circumstances to define us, or if we will shape our identity through our decisions.

Whether you identify as Hispanic or Latino, and whether you feel comfortable speaking Spanish or not, I think there should be a generous interest in the language that allowed our culture to develop.

In advance of the holiday shopping season, BODEN and QuestMindshare unveiled The Latina SmartPurse, a new research initiative focused on the Hispanic female in the United States that takes a deep dive into the modern Latina consumer, her influence, and what she expects from brands when making purchasing decisions.

"We are seeing a continental shift in Latina females and their role in our society and economy; they are playing many roles as business owners, mothers, cultural evangelists and societal influencers," said Natalie Boden, president of BODEN, in a press release. "The Latina SmartPurse study shows us that there is no better time than now for brands to invest in Latinas as a key consumer segment within the U.S. landscape."

According to a 2015 study by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, the number of Hispanics living in the U.S. has more than doubled. At 54 million, Hispanics now make up the largest ethnic minority in the country. Currently, one in five women in the U.S. is Hispanic and will comprise nearly one third of the country's female population by 2060.

The study shows they are bicultural, more educated than ever before, and armed with information from channels of trust. Latinas are showing their affinity toward brands that acknowledge their rise and power and align with personal values.

The new study also reveals Latina females wield tremendous purchasing power as part of the $1 trillion spend among Hispanics and approximately $7 trillion spend among U.S. females. Recognizing and celebrating Hispanic culture creates mega-crossover opportunities for brands to connect with them.

Additionally, findings in The Latina SmartPurse study include:

Latinas earn nearly 50% or more of their household incomeMore than 57% agree that they are more likely to purchase a brand if their social media content reflects their Hispanic culture65% agree that it is important for brands to develop content specifically for Latinas70% care more about quality than priceLatinas spend an average of 5 hours a day on social media channels to connect with family and friends, research products, and follow brands they trust"Understanding the power the Latina holds in U.S. households is key to earning her purchasing dollars. It goes beyond being culturally relevant; it's about engaging her with content that speaks to her preferences, her triumphs and her ever-evolving identity, and providing her with the tools to continue to help her succeed in the U.S. today," Boden added.

The Latina SmartPurse study was an online survey fielded nationally in April and May 2016 among 2,024 Hispanic females from 18 to 54 years of age, with 24% Spanish dominant and 76% English dominant.

In Waco during the 1900s pockets of Hispanic communities lived in neighborhoods with names like Sandtown, White City and Calle Dos. These areas were eventually demolished and are now memories of the town’s early days. But there has been a recent effort to unearth a remaining vestige of one of these communities.

At the corner of Jefferson Avenue and University Parks Drive, volunteers use trowels to chip away at the ground beneath .They’re slowly unearthing a spring-fed water fountain known as “La Pila.”

“It was a beautiful fountain, but not as ornate as some of the other ones," Alice Rodriguez says, remembering childhood days playing at “La Pila” – a wide, rounded concrete fountain with a bowl on top where water would flow.

“The water there, I remember the water being cold, because my cousins, pushed me in there," Rodriguez says, laughing. "We were playing and they pushed me in there.”

La Pilla – Spanish for “the fountain” – was a gathering point for Calle Dos, an early 20th century neighborhood in Waco that was home to Mexican Immigrants. Others from around the city would go there too. But, in the 50s, La Pila was plugged and covered up. In fact, the entire Calle Dos neighborhood and similar districts – were bulldozed as part of The Waco Urban Renewal Project in 1958.

Louis Gaytan-Garcia – who has worked to dig out the fountain – says it could’ve been saved.

“You know they could’ve kept this thing. They didn’t have to knock it down like they did. They just wiped it out," Gacia says, looking at a corner of the fountain that's visible. "It’s actually broke around the edges right there, where the Caterpillar was trying to crawl up on top of it and you can see where he broke the edges of the concrete trying to pack this dirt.”

A year ago, when the unearthing project was getting started, Garcia was told he needed to secure antiquities permits from the Texas Historical Commission. That’s where Katherine Turner-Pearson comes in. She's the principal investigating archaeologist overseeing the project.

She believes excavating “La Pila” will help bring back the memories of this neighborhood.

“I think of it as the archaeology of the memories, and get those down now. They will be lost forever," Turner-Pearson says. "Even though I’m an archaeologist, that to me is more important that the fountain itself, and that’s really where we have to start working."

But unearthing the fountain will take time. La Pila is estimated to be some 4 to 5 feet under ground, and volunteers here are digging 10 centimeters deep at a time, says Annaliese Sonntag

"That’s kind of why it takes so long too," she says, sweeping up dirt.

Sonntag is from the Dallas area, but came to help. She says excavations like these are done slowly to make sure everything is exhumed evenly.

“Then you stop, do the paperwork, sift through everything. Take photos if there’s anything photo worthy. When we get down to this part of the fountain, to the rim, we’ll definitely take a photo. Then we’ll start all over again and go deeper."

Once the fountain is dug out, Garcia has big ideas, like getting it restored and turned back into the meeting spot it once was.

He would also like a historical marker – he says – to remind people of the community that was once here.

For some listeners, one word stood out during the Latino Student Union’s convocation in September: Latinx.

Alexa Valdez, a senior social work major and a Latino Student Union leader, spoke during chapel on Sept. 14 about what exactly it means to be Latinx.

“Latinx is trying to break through the barriers that the Spanish language presents,” she said. “It’s full of the gender binary, which makes it difficult for people who don’t identify within the binary to name themselves.”

One key aspect that Valdez stresses is that Latinx invites people to be more inclusive and to be better allies to non-binary people within our community.

Latinx is a term that is used as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino, which is masculine but also is used as an umbrella term to refer to men (Latinos) and women (Latinas). Though there may be many Latinx community members that may not necessarily associate themselves with one specific gender, as of now, there has not been a GC individual who has come forth and directly embraced this term.

Using this term will generate a feeling of inclusion for those who may not associate themselves with a specific gender.

The word is still subject to debate and has not yet been given official status in dictionaries.

Jessica Baldanzi, associate professor of English, endorsed the adoption of Latinx. “Sometimes when people try to come up with gender-neutral solutions they’re awkward, but I think this is a graceful fix,” she said.

In the Spanish language, words generally divide into two camps: the masculine and the feminine [Latina and Latino.]

An article titled “Why People Are Using the Term ‘Latinx’” published in the Huffington Post in July, mentions that the “x” exhibits a sense of rejection of gendering evident in the word Latino. The article noted that due to the rise of many social issues, such as LGBTQ rights, some individuals in the Latinx community are questioning what word to associate themselves with.

Latino or Latina? This is where Latinx starts to play a huge part in defining who these people are. The term is working to move past gender binaries and to become a single general type of a gender system for Latinx across the world.

The rise of the word Latinx has created buzz within Latino Student Union members. A week after the LSU convocation presentation in a LSU club leader meeting, Valdez proposed to the club that they formally commence the process of changing the club name to Latinx Student Union.

The movement towards changing the name of the club to Latinx Student Union is in the works. The club must go through a formal approval process before getting the name changed. Rocio Diaz, coordinator of intercultural community engagement and a Latino Student Union advisor, told members that “Latino Student Union is a club that Student Life has in place since forever ago. I think that it would be appropriate to go through the appropriate channel to request a change in name.”

Valdez, alongside all the LSU leaders, have begun conversations with Launa Rohrer, dean of students, to formally change the name of the club. The members are all hoping that this new title will allow the club to be more inclusive of those who do not identify with a specific gender.

Beth Martin Birky, professor of English and director of Women’s and Gender Studies, said, “I believe that language is a significant representation of our values and beliefs and can influence our experiences. Words create spaces where experiences can be understood in a new way. Words can also be used to negate and erase experiences. That said, it can take a lot of effort to change the language we use, but it is very important to use language that embodies the value of respect and care.”

After growing up all my life in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, I’m used to seeing bodegas — mini-marts that primarily cater to Spanish-speaking communities.

Recently, I heard one of my classmates refer to a bodega as a “papi-store,” and something about it rubbed me the wrong way. They could just be saying papi-store as the “Spanish version” of mom-and-pop store, but to attach “papi” also seemed to conjure up a stereotypical image of what the store and its owners looked like.

I wondered if I was overreacting, but this wasn’t the first time I heard a Spanish term exploited and appropriated by a non-Spanish speaker.

Of course, languages are constantly evolving and borrowing from each other. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But when people misuse the words they’re borrowing from a different culture, respect is lost in translation. Speakers need to acknowledge and show understanding of the communities from which they borrowing their slang.

“When there’s an appropriation, it’s total disregard for the culture that the words come from,” said Aaron X. Smith, an assistant professor of Africology and African American studies. “If you’re just cherry-picking the words out to talk like people and not really appreciating the people as people, then it becomes problematic. You don’t even talk to me but then you’re going to go ahead and talk like me.”

Appropriation doesn’t just occur with words from other languages. Even in the English language, words that originated in African-American communities have been integrated into mainstream discourse, and are now widely spoken by non-Black people.

I’ve noticed students borrow slang like “bae,” “ratchet,” “lit” and “fleek,” which Smith said originated within African-American communities.

Smith said these words are often appropriated to the point where they aren’t even properly used anymore.

“I would consider certain slang words authentic until they reach the point of crossing over,” Smith said. “At such a point, they seem to lose their appeal and lose their power, because in that exchange of language, it’s strengthening that we speak a certain way that everyone else isn’t in on the conversation.”

Appropriation is based on a power dynamic where those in the dominant position take something from those below them and use it however they want.

I’ve noticed this in specific instances of Spanish words being borrowed. Often these words are used in ways that are vulgar or simply grammatically incorrect. They sometimes aim to oversexualize or make a joke out of the Latino community.

I’ve heard non-Spanish speakers sexualize the words “mami” and “papi” to refer to someone who they find attractive, but in actuality Spanish speakers use these terms to refer to their parents.

“With the example of Spanish words being incorporated in American English, and in some cases badly mispronounced, the people doing that are most likely not going to be corrected,” said Paul Garrett, an anthropology professor. “Even if they are corrected, they’re going to feel like, ‘Come on, I’m just trying to have a little fun here putting a little Spanish in my English. I’m not really trying to speak Spanish.’ They’re using it in a way where they perceive to be kind of humorous.”

Kassandra Nevarez, a junior economics major, said she thinks using “mock-Spanish” is a form of cultural appropriation in that non-native speakers are seen as “trendy and cool, while the natives are seen as others and foreigners.”

“Mock-Spanish has been used toward me in what feels like an attempt to dumb me down,” Nevarez said. “It also dumbs down connotations and mixes up definitions and pronunciation.”

Orlando Sánchez, a junior Latin American studies major, said he usually sees problematic usage of Spanish more on social media than in person.

“Oftentimes I see it on social media, since they are careful to seem respectful in person,” he said. “I once saw a party flyer for ‘Drinko de Mayo’ on Twitter and they blocked everyone who rightly criticized it.”

“They only wish to have fun with microaggressions and not be attacked for it,” he added.

The imbalance of power among racial groups is apparent when some groups are ridiculed and face discrimination because of the way they speak, but those borrowing their words are seen as cultured or funny.

It doesn’t seem fair for communities of color to be ostracized for the way they speak when others borrow their words without the same negative experiences.

“If you’re in the position of being able to pick and choose different aspects of the culture or language and you’re not even attentive or aware of the different types of daily discriminations or microaggressions that people of that background deal with, that can cause bad feelings,” Garrett said.

While I don’t think students should be discouraged from learning about different languages and cultures, it’s important they understand these terms in more than their borrowed context.

They need to understand the communities from which they’re drawing, and the experiences those people have had while using those words.

They need to borrow words thoughtfully and respectfully, because words are powerful.

It’s El Dolar Falso in the home stretch, neck and neck with El Medianoche. Which horse wins matters less than being in on the secret — finding your way on a Sunday afternoon to this improbable oasis of Latino cowboy pageantry called Rancho La Pura Vida, in Remington, Va. The crowd numbers 500 and everyone speaks Spanish. They’ve come to race their horses or just to watch.

The men favor cowboy boots with long, upward-pointing toes, called picudas. Their belts are made of exotic hides and feature buckles that might display, say, a preserved scorpion. Some fans sport medallions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, whose image also graces the headgear of some of the horses. Between races, bands entertain families enjoying picnics with norteño music or other regional Mexican styles.

The scene was born of economic desperation for Maria Rodriguez and her husband, Jaime Martinez. The housing crisis of 2010 hit their turf farm business, so they got permits to hold events every other Sunday in the tradition of races, rodeos and horse shows popular in Central America and Mexico, says Rodriguez, a detective in the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office. Some Sundays feature a jaripeo, or Latin American bull-riding event.

You might see rider Rayito Ramirez, from Michoacan, Mexico, by way of Asheboro, N.C., clinging to a bucking beast with just the strength of his legs — no hands — for a few seconds at least. A day at the rodeo seems to end just as quickly, and the scene evaporates, ready to remake itself again.

After accepting his award at the 29th Hispanic Heritage Awards in September, Dominican author Junot Diaz dedicated his novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, to the Latino community and followed up with a moving poem titled “Our Story.”

Voto Latino recently created a powerfully-imaged video out of Diaz’s poem, in which he highlights the struggles and perseverance of Latinos, emphatically claiming “we are the children of bridges, bridges made from our backs, our tears, our sacrifices, and from all the ones who never made it across with us.”

Such moving words are paired with equally moving images of Latino giants, many of whom have pushed forward our culture and experiences—like Selena Quintanilla, Celia Cruz, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Diaz ends his verse with the words “all of us must be free, all of us must be free, all of us must be free, or none.” These words resonate with many across the country and will still ring in the ears of Latinos this Election Day.

The reason why people don’t understand why you can be both black and Latino at the same time is because the media doesn’t present it that way and we don’t see it, and I think we really do truly get our representation of who people are from the media…

The aforementioned is a quote pulled from a video TheRoot.com published in mid-October, right before the end of Hispanic Heritage Month 2016. It’s not the first of its kind, and it will not be the last. After all, forums surrounding Afrolatinidad are not a new concept. The ones being had, however, as far as popular culture is concerned, only cover the surface. Not only are black Latinos not represented in the media as pointed out in the video (below), our voices are also not present in academia, which is to say the classroom and its history books.

Blackness in the United States is typically reserved for the African-American experience. So videos like these—ones that celebrate blackness beyond borders, the joys of being descendants of Africa and all the cultural links in our food and music and religion—are brilliant and necessary in many respects, but simultaneously do a disservice to the conversation and movement surrounding Afro-Latinos.

(It must be noted that the term Afro-Latino, though a purposeful political act for many who have been stripped of their identity and denied their own blackness, can be viewed as divisive. But for layman’s terms, we’ll stick to this now-popular phrase.)

Being Afro-Latino is more than just a source of pride, it’s more than just embracing your natural hair, owning the skin you’re in and throwing up the blackest fist in solidarity. It is also about accountability and decolonization and facing a historical trauma. As children of the diaspora in the era of neo-colonialism, how do we begin to elevate that conversation, continue to propel the Afro-Latino movement beyond the “I’m black, too” rhetoric? What are we doing with the power behind reclaiming our blackness? How do we galvanize in the name of the oppressed back home?

We asked writer and social critic César Vargas about his thoughts on the current state of Afro-Latinos. As far as he’s concerned, the movement has grown terribly sluggish, and videos like the one in question do not help expand the imperative dialogue.

“It’s been the same narrative for years about identity, acceptance, and the arts. I’d like to see more confrontational work, such as the one Dorothy Bell Ferrer writes,” he said. “I’d like to hear about the political and financial situation of Black Latinos. I don’t want to knock down the folks on the video. Their understanding and realities of Afrolatinidad are valid, but I believe we need to move to the next step and discuss deeper things such as racism, colorism, power structures, gender dynamics, housing, education, and the financial situation of Black Latinos. I don’t want our folks to be woke and broke. We need to move beyond that by being politically and financially literate. We won’t get that from videos such as these because they are safe.”

And while safe spaces for the systemically oppressed and marginalized are also necessary, the greater thing at stake here is education, which should not have to be safe, something Bell Ferrer, the writer and activist Vargas referred to, equally rails against.

“Many of these cases nowadays use culture and “happiness” as a way to keep their oppression as powerful as it is. In no way am I saying that joy is negative because it’s not. We need joy [and], in this case, we need to love and adore and celebrate our blackness, but we also need to interrupt white supremacy,” she said emphatically. “I always say, if you ever want to heal you have to look trauma in the face. The dances, the drums, the “I love my blackness” is for us, not “them”—the capitalist white bourgeoisie and/or racists. The [Afro-Latino] movement, like many others, hasn’t allowed for us to dig deeply and deal with our trauma in ways that puts the responsibility of racism and other oppressions we face on the aforementioned group.”

There are about 24 million workers of Hispanic descent in the United States. While this group is frequently referred to as a single entity, the reality is that these workers come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, each with their own challenges in the labor market.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) provides an overview of the diverse backgrounds of the Hispanic workforce, and shows how each group experiences unique challenges in the labor market, specifically in terms of unemployment, wages, poverty, language barriers, and access to health and retirement benefits. The report, “Hispanic Workers in the United States” also shows that union representation has helped to address some of these challenges. Some highlights from the report include:

• Workers of Mexican descent are by far the largest subgroup of the Hispanic workforce (14.9 million);

• Women make up only 43.3 percent of the overall Hispanic workforce, but they are a majority of several subgroups, including Panamanians (58.1 percent), Bolivians (53.2 percent), and Paraguayans (51.0 percent);

• About two-thirds of Hispanic workers are U.S. citizens – Puerto Ricans (98.7 percent) and Spaniards (90.9 percent) are the groups most likely to be citizens;

• Hispanic workers in general are more likely than workers of any other race/ethnicity to be in poverty. Among Hispanics, Guatemalans are most likely to be members of the working poor (19.1 percent);

• About 30 percent of Hispanic workers do not have health insurance, but over half of Guatemalan and Honduran workers lack health insurance;

• Hispanic union workers earn 24.9 percent (about $3.99 per hour) more than their non-union peers, are 30.3 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 27.7 percentage points more likely to have employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Cherrie Bucknor, author of the report explained, “Understanding the diversity and challenges faced by Hispanic workers is key to making better policy decisions. This report shows that unionization is an important tool to improve the economic conditions of Hispanic workers.”